People

meylakhs-276x303
Peter Meylakhs, PhD
Centre for Health Economics, Management and Policy, Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia - Associate Professor & Senior Research Fellow
Centre for Independent Social Research - Research Fellow
Education
PhD, Sociology, St. Petersburg State University
MA, Psychology, University of Russian Academy of Education
Research Interests
Sociology of health and illness, Social aspects of drug use, HIV and HCV prevention, Qualitative and mixed methods research, Sociocultural theory of risk, Drug policy, Young drug users, MSM, Women who use drugs, AIDS denialism
BIO
Peter Meylakhs is a sociologist at Centre for Health Economics, Management and Policy (Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia). Dr. Meylakhs started his research career in the drug field by studying moral panics around drugs in the Russian media in the early 2000s. As a post-doctoral fellow at National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., under the mentorship of Samuel R. Friedman, he participated in “Staying Safe” project, which sought to understand, how long-term PWID managed to stay HIV- and HCV-free despite long injection careers. As a result, he (with co-authors) developed a theoretical framework based on role theory that provided possible explanation to this research question. Dr. Meylakhs has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research; he has participated in more than a dozen studies on drug use and blood-borne viruses as a Principal Investigator and an Investigator, and has authored several publications on drugs and HIV, as well as co-authoring many publications on the subject. Currently, he is developing HIV-PWID Policy Index Measuring National Responses to HIV among PWID.
Projects
Principal Investigator, HIV, HCV, STI, OD and Other Risks Associated with Hard Drug Use Among Young Drug Users in St. Petersburg, Russia. Completed
Publications

Recent

Meylakhs P, Davitadze A, Meylakhs A, Rodionova T, Alieva A (2022).
HIV testing patterns among recently self-tested Russian men who have sex with men: A qualitative study
Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 33 (5), 550-558. doi: 10.1097/JNC.0000000000000344.

King EJ, Rozek L, Lin AC, Hicken A, Jones P, Aleksandrova E, Meylakhs P, Nambunmee K, Tardif T (2022).
Health behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic: Perspectives from studying international coping and compliance
Health Education and Behavior, 49 (1), 5-10. doi: 10.1177/10901981211060327.

Davitadze A, Meylakhs P, Lakhov A, King EJ (2020).
Harm reduction via online platforms for people who use drugs in Russia: A qualitative analysis of web outreach work
Harm Reduction Journal, 17 (1), 98. doi: 10.1186/s12954-020-00452-6. PMCID: PMC7725218.

Sevigny EL, Meylakhs P, Feizollahi MJ, Amini MR (2020).
Development of a global index measuring national policy commitments to HIV prevention and treatment among people who inject drugs
International Journal of Drug Policy, 84, 102877. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102877.

Meylakhs P, Friedman SR, Meylakhs A, Mateu-Gelabert P, Ompad DC, Alieva A, Dmitrieva A (2019).
A new generation of drug users in St. Petersburg, Russia? HIV, HCV, and overdose risks in a mixed-methods pilot study of young hard drug users
AIDS and Behavior, 23 (12), 3350-3365. doi: 10.1007/s10461-019-02489-6. PMCID: PMC6788941.


Notable

Meylakhs P (2009).
Drugs and symbolic pollution: The work of cultural logic in the Russian press
Cultural Sociology, 3 (3), 377-395. doi: 10.1177/1749975509105538.

Dr. Meylakhs' Google Scholar Profile
Selected Press